Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Bana Alabed, the girl known as the face of Aleppo, has reportedly written a letter with the help of her mother to UK Prime Minister Theresa May. The seven year old who lived in previously besieged eastern Aleppo has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and is verified on the social media platform.

Here’s a copy of the letter, in which Bana beseeches the UK leader to send food and aid to the children of Aleppo, claiming that a little would go a long way:

Though Bana’s authenticity has come under question, she highlights in many of her tweets one of the most vulnerable populations caught up in the Syrian conflict: children.

Children coming out of Syria are reportedly so traumatized that a new term had to be created for their psychological conditions by a doctor from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), according to Attn News. The new term is called human devastation syndrome, a condition more extreme than PTSD.

In addition, it is estimated that 300,000 Syrian children are living under siege, according to a joint UN statement in January 2017. Bana, too, was living in besieged Eastern Aleppo, until Syrian government forces retook the city in December of 2016.

Despite the doubts that some have over the little girl’s authenticity, some social media users still choose to support Bana.

This Twitter user vows he will do his best to make sure her letter is seen by British Parliament: